’Roos Lend a Hand in Texas and California
When COVID-19 protocols left an area hospital short on hand sanitizer and in desperate need of a quick supply, where did first responders look for help? The local distillery, of course! Ironroot Republic Distillery, co-owned and operated by Robert Likarish ’09 and his brother, Jonathan, in Denison, Texas, could make the high-proof alcohol component needed for hand sanitizer. The brothers readied the vodka still and went to work. Twenty-four hours later, they had produced 200 gallons of the base that pharmacists needed to make the sanitizer.
Their efforts became news when WFAA-TV in Dallas aired a story about the project. “Being able to help our healthcare workers and first responders who are fighting on the front lines of this pandemic is 1 million percent worth it,” the brothers said.
The Herald-Democrat also ran a March 20th story on the effort. In the article Robert said the distillery had been producing 180 gallons a week of high-proof alcohol base that compounding pharmacists at local hospitals could use to make sanitizers. “The requests keep coming in from farther and farther away—so we are just trying to keep up now,” Robert said in the article. “For the foreseeable future, I don’t see us making any whiskey—hopefully the industrial sites (making sanitizer) will catch up. … I don’t know how long financially we’ll be able to continue, but we will continue until we can’t afford the grain anymore.”
Ironroot Republic Distillery has since donated the base to several local hospitals, police and fire departments, and several home health organizations. “We’ve always been of the belief that when your community needs you, you step up,” Robert said.
The California Effort
Luan (Beaty) ’75 and John Mendel ’76 and their family own and operate Devils Creek Distillery in Mammoth Lakes, California. The slopes of nearby Mammoth Mountain Ski Resort attract guests from around the world. When a global pandemic is brewing, the convergence of multinational people in a small mountain town spells trouble.
As hand sanitizer supplies disappeared, the Mendels decided to switch the majority of their production to sanitizer and quickly got a first batch to the Chamber of Commerce for local businesses. When the governor closed nonessential businesses 10 days later, the owner of Mammoth Brewing Company, the largest local brewery, approached them about a collaboration.
Luan explained that the first step in making spirits involves a mash, which she said is really just beer. The brewery delivered its tapped kegs from local restaurants and bars, and soon, the distillery had produced more high-proof alcohol to distribute to hospitals and first responders.
The Mendels have spent countless hours answering desperate inquiries for sanitizer from all over the state. “Making alcohol is our business, and turning some of it into sanitizer to help critical personnel seems like the least we can do in the middle of this pandemic,” Luan said. They have distributed more than 150 gallons of hand sanitizer thus far, having settled into a production schedule that yields about 40 gallons a week. They expect to continue production for another four to five weeks.
The partnership with the brewery saved precious time since making a mash takes four to five days, and the companies met desperate need. Their county has the highest per capita rate of infection in California counties.
Luan estimated the distillery spent approximately $15 per gallon for bottles and containers, and “given the misery going on in our country and around the world, that doesn’t seem like a big sacrifice,” Luan said. “The adage about doing well by doing good is not just something we say; it is at the core of everything we do in our little family business.”
Luan said one of their doctor friends recently reported the “whole hospital smells like whiskey thanks to your sanitizer!”
In rough times, smiles still come.